I can do this for other things except when it comes to a string. I want to get the string RIFF (bytes 1-4 as it's the first part of the file). I can get the RIFF string when I do this:

Dim X$
For N = 1 to 10
X$ = Input (4, #1)
MsgBox X$
Next N

If I move onto the next part of the file to get the WAVE string, I have to first read RIFF and then read the WAVE one (bytes 9-12). My question is, can I skip the first part of the file and only pull out the WAVE string with VB6?

The header of a .WAV file is pretty simple. It's typically 44 bytes divided into a number of fields.

Instead of trying to read each field separately, simply read the entire header into a structure. You can then extract individual fields from the array, using the appropriate indexes. You will have to read the header from the file only once (which is much faster), and you will have clear access to all the fields. For example:

Option Explicit
Public Type WavHeader
fileType As String * 4
fileSize As Long
dataType As String * 4
chunkMarker As String * 4
dataLength As Long
formatType As Integer
channels As Integer
sampleRate As Long
perSecondBytes As Long
sampleBytes As Integer
sampleBits As Integer
dataChunkHead As String * 4
fileSize As Long
End Type
Public Sub GetWavTexts(MyFile As String)
Dim myWavHeader As WavHeader
Dim riffText As String
Dim waveText As String
Open MyFile For Binary Access Read As #1
Get #1, 1, myWavHeader
riffText = myWavHeader.fileType
waveText = myWavHeader.dataType
End Sub

This is Air Code - I have neither compiled nor tested it. It is provided as an example and a starting point for your development.